The War of Our Fathers
by writing in the rain
Summary: Lily Potter has returned to Hogwarts for her fifth year, but is shes no longer safe, even when inside the castle walls. Someones out to get her, but who? Full Summary inside.
1. Summary

**The War of Our Fathers: Full Summary. **

There are certain people who love being in the spotlight. Lily Potter was not one of those people. But being a Potter she was forced to live in the shadow of her large family and their fame. But more than making Lily uncomfortable, the occupation of Harry Potter's only daughter turns out to be quite dangerous. There's someone out to get revenge on Harry for his triumph over Voldemort, and what better way to do so than by going after his pride and joy: Lily. People might think she's safe at Hogwarts, but the evil has an ally within the castle walls. Will the treacherous person be eradicated before it's too late, or will Lily fall at the hands of evil like so many before her?


	2. Chapter One: Welcome Back

**Chapter 1: Welcome Back **

When you think about it, life is really just a strand of events one right after the other. They're different for everyone and some are larger than others. They way Lily figured it there are some events that matter more than anything. It's these events that define our person. Then there are the small things, the things that happen all the time; like lessons and dinner and train rides. It's these things that don't matter; at least that's what Lily thought. She figured there were some things you could simply erase, so to speak, from a person's head and they would be no different for it.

With this idea in mind, Lily had thoroughly decided, without a doubt, to the end of absolutism, that the current events of her life defiantly belonged in lesser category. It was such the reason she had currently locked herself in her shared bathroom on the pretense of well, using it. She was pretty sure her best friend and knitting extraordinaire, Faith Johnson, had seen right through her excuse. It had been a flimsy and way to frequently used one. But Faith of all people understood that sometimes Lily just needed to get away.

A bought of loud laughter sailed through the door causing Lily to tear her eyes from the mirror in front of her. She knew, from experience, that her presence would soon be missed, even if the people missing her didn't particularly like her. She lifted her too-pale hands from where they had been clutching too-tightly to the sink. She smoothed down her already straight auburn hair before moving back into her dorm room where she resided during the school year with four other girls.

You see, Lily is no ordinary girl—by any standards. She is the only daughter of the famous wizard Harry Potter, and, of course, a witch. Now not only is Lily odd by non-magical view, but most everyone else's to boot. Even those of her kind, magic folk that is, tended to steer clear. If it wasn't for her last name and gene pool, Lily would have most likely been the quiet girl in the back of class who everyone knows is weird but doesn't actually _know_. Of course everyone still knew Lily was a bit of an oddball but instead being allowed to simply live in peace, Lily was forced to live in the fame and glory of her parents.

Despite even this, Lily still had few friends. But this was more of her own choice. They are, no doubt about it, many who wish to be friends with the famous child, but way back in first year, Lily had (politely as is possible of course) declined said friendships. It was such that many of the girls in fifth year with her (and others) still resented her.

Perhaps for these reasons, or maybe for others, Lily was not addressed by any of the four girls in the room with her (though to her credit Faith kept sending her long meaningful looks that Lily mostly just ignored) until she was lounging comfortably of her four poster bed of five years and trying to decide if it was worth the effort to change out of her standard uniform robes.

"Congrats Lily by the way," One of her preppy and entirely too-enthusiastic-about-everything roommates said. It took Lily a moment to shake herself out of her self-induced daze and figure out that it was Ashley talking. It took another several minutes for Lily to connect the half-hearted congratulations to the brand new shiny badge resting upon her chest and then to mumble out a thanks.

Lily was sure that Ashley didn't really care at all that she had been appointed Gryffindor Quidditch Caption (the youngest in, well, Lily wasn't really sure in how long, but it was a long time). She wasn't really sure how the conversation had managed to make its way to the topic of Quidditch in the first place. Lily was one of the only girls in Gryffindor to actually give a damn about Quidditch. Somehow, Lily couldn't help her love for Quidditch. It was just another thing that tied her to her large family. Sometimes she hated herself for blending even more into the Weasley-Potter clan, but she couldn't bring herself to quit Quidditch—like Albus had—because she adored the sport too much.

One by one the occupants of the room began to drop off to sleep to 'prepare' for the first day of lessons. First was Rebecca who claimed she had a cold, though Lily thought she looked perfectly healthy. Then, after talking for what felt like seven eternities, Ashley and Bianca followed her lead until finally the only souls left untouched by the captivating hands of sleep were Faith and Lily.

Faith moved from her bed to the one next door: Lily's. They two best friends were silent for a moment as the reveled in each other's company. Faith, who was muggle born with parents who didn't necessarily approve of the whole magic scene, had been away all summer and the pair had not seen each other since the train ride a season ago, though they had exchanged many an owl.

"Are you alright?" Faith asked Lily. She kept her voice low so as to not disturb the sleeping bodies around them. Lily felt the distinct, and not totally abnormal, feeling that Faith was x-raying her mind.

"Yeah," Lily replied absentmindedly, though she was, in fact, very much not alright. She felt a strange sense of foreboding that weighed heavily on the stomach. The feeling had been swirling around her for the past week or so, and ever since she had left the company and protection of her skilled family the feeling had deepened and taken root in the back of her mind; always there. She feared both what she knew and what she didn't.

Faith had always had a talent for reading people. It had developed at quite a young age, and her talent had only heightened with her age. She could tell Lily was lying to her; she knew there was something up with her friend. In fact, she had noticed something off in Lily's letters the last few weeks of summer. Faith had passed it off to excitement of some sort, but now she suspected something more. Faith did know Lily well enough to understand that it was not the time for these discussions. This was something serious; a discussion meant for empty rooms and secret tree houses.

"How was your summer?" Lily asked, trying to fill the silence growing between them.

"My parents were annoying as ever!" Faith exclaimed and launched into a long and informative monologue about why they were so annoying. Any normal person might have found Faith herself annoying, the way she could drone on and on about the same topic with barely a moment for you to put in a thought or to on your own. But luckily for the both, Lily had never been very normal. Faith loved to talk, in certain company, and Lily enjoyed listening without having to compensate with words of her own. She listened attentively and commented at just the right moments. And everything was fine for the moment; two friends talking quietly into the night, unaware of the evil stirring around them.

* * *

The morning dawned, cold and unwelcome, and much sooner than felt right. Having spent half the night talking away the time and most of the rest tossing about in a state of half sleep—on the verge of reality but not far enough from the edge to properly rest, Lily blearily raised her eyelids at the sound of an alarm piercing her vague consciousness. The feeling as though waking from the arms of death weighed heavily upon Lily's tired chest, but it was not unusual. In fact it had become the norm. Lily lived in a state of walking sleep. It would take only a small push to send her toppling off the precarious edge where she perched and into the land of nightmares and sluggish dreams for good.

The bright light of the room proved too much for eyes of the morning and Lily relaxed back upon the pillows that seemed to become cruelly comfortable, enticing Lily back into the relative safety they provided from the world. But eventually, she had to rise and face the day.

Most everyone else was excited; they were back at Hogwarts for another year. It wouldn't be till later on that the young witches and wizards would remember that school involved work. But for the time they were happy in the company of people like them. Still, the Great Hall filled slowly that morning. For as excited as everyone seemed to be to start off the day, no one wanted it to start so early.

Even so, Lily was one of the last to arrive at breakfast, the mail had already come and gone and the food supply was diminishing. She sat down in between her two closest, and sometimes only, friends: Faith and Oliver. They had scarcely greeted their disheveled friend when their new timetables were handed to them.

"Hi Neville," Lily greeted their house professor with a false grin as she absentmindedly reached for a piece of toast, more so to assuage her friends worry than to ease the hunger she wasn't feeling.

"Hello Lily," Neville greeted her as he mussed her hair affectionately. He didn't bother reminding her to call him Professor Longbottom when they were at school; he didn't really mind. "Faith, Oliver," He greeted the two next to Lily as he handed them their respective schedules. Lily studied the layout of the coming year for a minute in silence. It took her a minute to notice what had to be a mistake.

"Hey, Uncle Nev," She called out to Neville, causing him to look up from the first years he was talking to. "I think there's a mistake on here," Lily said in answer to his unspoken question. Smiling to himself (as though he knew some sort of wonderful secret), Neville rejoined Lily and company after a few more words to the lost looking first years.

"What's up?" He inquired, peering over her shoulder at schedule.

"You've got me down for potions twice," She said pointing out the obvious mistake. She expected Neville to apologize, wave his wand in an intricate movement and all would be right. Instead, he simply grinned even bigger, causing Lily to shoot him a look that clearly said you-better-tell-me-why-that's-not-a-free-period.

"That's no mistake love. Professor Bagsby said that she thought fifth year potions wasn't enough of a challenge for you, so she wanted you to join the seventh year class as well." Neville explained with a sort of parentally air that made Lily absentmindedly categorize Neville as a person who would make an excellent father; she figured that's why he was a good teacher.

"But I haven't even taken my OWL's yet! How can I be in a NEWT level class?" Lily was incredibly happy to hear the news; she had always loved potions more than anything. But after everything going wrong in her life, Lily felt as though this was too good to be real. It was the classic feeling one gets when they feel as they're life is a fantasy. But after a bemused smile an explanation from Neville about how Headmistress McCormack had made a special exception due to Lily's incredible talent in potions.

For the rest of breakfast Lily couldn't wipe the smile off her face. She pushed aside thoughts that she was only allowed this chance because of her parentage. After all her father had been terrible at potions, except for his sixth year of course, this, in hindsight, shouldn't really count because he was technically cheating the whole year. Lily had inherited her talent from her namesake; she thought her father must have been very proud at having matched all three of his children with appropriate names.

While most of Lily enjoyed potions for what it was, there was a small part of her being that loved potion because it was such a Slytherin trait for a girl from a very Gryffindor family (excluding Rose and Percy's kids of course, who had all landed themselves in Ravenclaw). It made her feel guilty for wanting to be so different from what everyone expected; and then she felt guilty for feeling guilty.

* * *

The first day of lessons was uneventful as ever, and although no one displayed any signs of hostility towards her, Lily could not calm her racing nerves. She jumped at the smallest sounds and flinched whenever something came in contact with her skin. After sitting through a boring lecture from Professor Bins (which provided an excellent opportunity to try and catch up on lost sleep) and reviews in Transfiguration and Charms (which left Lily with the odd feeling that she had never left her fourth year) Faith had defiantly realized something major was up with Lily.

Faith and Lily had the sort of friendship that blossoms quickly and only happens once or twice within someone's life. After deciding she did not like the other three Gryffindor girls in her year, Lily had been somewhat drawn to Faith, despite that fact that their personalities were very different. Lily was far quieter and shy, ever the dreamer, whereas Faith was loud and quirky with a bit of a rebellious streak. Lily realized later that the reason they clicked so wonderfully was probably because Faith was the only muggle-born out of the five girls, and therefore did not know anything about the Potters or their fame. Of course she realized it eventually, but by then her and Lily were completely inseparable and it didn't really seem to matter much. They had stuck together since their first year at Hogwarts, and Faith could tell that something bad had happened over the summer.

She tried to coax the story from Lily several times throughout the long first day, but Lily refused to give her any information feeling as though if she didn't talk about it, than it wasn't real and she didn't have to deal with it. The feeling would, of course, fade over time. Faith knew that; and so did Lily. But Faith was neither patient nor easily discourageable, so when Lily headed to ancient runes and Faith went with Oliver to Divination (a class Lily had chosen to skip out on after hearing questionable things about it from family) she recognized her chance. Oliver, being a half-blood, was more connected to the magic world than Faith and would have likely heard of anything monumental.

"Have you noticed anything bit off about Lily?" Faith asked as soon as the pair was settled in their customary back-of-the-room seats. Neither Faith nor Oliver were particularly interested in Divination, but Faith enjoyed making whispered jokes on Professor Patil's behalf, and Oliver, well Oliver just couldn't bring himself to quit on a subject even if he didn't really understand its point.

"Yeah, course I did," Oliver replied in his thick Spanish accent which had taken Faith and Lily years to get used to. Faith realized that of course Oliver would have noticed; he noticed almost everything. Out of their trio, Oliver was defiantly the most studious, holding an unfair talent for almost every subject he attempted. And not only was Oliver smart, but he was observant and quite good with riddles. Faith was quite sure he would be able to put the pieces together and figure out what was up with Lily.

"And…" Faith prompted him, looking entirely too much like a puppy waiting for a bone. Oliver chuckled at her enthusiasm, though he knew she was only worried for Lily.

"I think this is the sort of thing you should wait for Lily to tell you herself," Oliver explained. By this point they were pretending to decipher each other's dreams, which provided an excellent environment for Faith and Oliver to have a conversation without being heard over all the other buzzing voices.

"So you know what happened then?" Faith said glancing quickly at her book as the professor walked by. She jumped haphazardly into an analysis of a dream Oliver defiantly did not have. As soon as Parvati Patil had moved onto another pair they quickly fell back into their conversation with ease.

"Well I can only guess…but there was only one thing that happened this summer that would cause Lily to worry this much." Oliver sighed and shook his shaggy black hair out of his uncharacteristically green eyes. "Well that I can think of anyways."

"And don't you think I have a right to know!" Faith exclaimed a bit louder than she meant to, causing a few people to give them dirty glares. "Sorry," Faith mumbled in their general direction before turning back to Oliver. "Look, Ollie, whatever happened was clearly a big deal." Oliver, after cringing at the nickname, nodded his affirmation to the statement. "I belong to the magical community as anyone else, even if my parents don't allow me to be a part of it over the summer. I need to know what happened." Oliver sighed; it was rare to see Faith so serious. She was usually bouncing-off-walls hyper and incredibly weird all the other times.

"I'm not saying you shouldn't know, I'm just saying that Lily should be the one to tell you. What happened directly affected her and her family more than anyone else. Since everyone else already knows what happened, at least let her be the one to tell you." Faith groaned at Oliver's impeccable logic. She knew he was right, but that didn't mean she would enjoy waiting to hear what events had occurred while she was away for the summer. It was times like these she hated her parents for keeping her from the world of magic during the summer simply because it scared them.

Faith, ever the ADHD child, turned her attention to the still-blank parchment in front of her. It was meant for note taking, but that was forgotten as Faith began to draw out her anger. By the end of the lesson she had depicted several evil monkeys decapitating Oliver after a rather humorous chase scene. Faith was particularly fond of the way Oliver's head bounced off parchment leaving a trail of blood in its wake.

As they left the lesson to rejoin Lily at dinner, Faith proudly presented her mediocre drawing to Oliver, who laughed at the typical Faith behavior.

"Nearly-headless Nick would be jealous of that beheading," He remarked as they entered the Great Hall.

"You'll have to enter the headless hunt on his behalf," Faith shot back making them both laugh.

Moments later they took their customary places at the Gryffindor table where Lily was already sitting. The three friends chatted easily while eating; falling into their routine of complaints about lessons and homework. In fact they were all a little put out that they already had tasks to complete after one day of lessons.

Faith noticed with an edge of suspicion that Lily seemed to be acting more normal than she had all day. She joined in Faith and Oliver's banter and joked around with them as usual. In fact, Faith noticed nothing amiss until the Headmistress rose from her seat to deliver another welcoming speech very similar to the one she had given the night before at the feast. At that time Lily began fidgeting in her seat and glancing all around the Great Hall as nerves overtook her once again.

And even though she knew it was silly, even though she knew she was safe at Hogwarts, Lily couldn't shake the very distinct feeling that someone evil, someone out to get her, was watching her.

* * *

**A/N: Hello, Hello! If you are reading this, I assume you have just read the first chapter of my new story, so thanks for that. **

**This is a rewrite of a fanfic I started lasted summer and never finished, Just the Way I Am. I'm following the same plot I came of up with for that story, but I'm also making what I feel are some great improvements. **

**Please leave me a review with something you liked in something you didn't. **

**I have edited this, but I'm better at editing other peoples stories than my own, so excuse any mistakes please. **

**Happy Reading. **

**xx Kayla. **


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